Could This Be The Reason Donald Trump Is Making A Big Fuss About Buying Greenland?

Could Trump really want Greenland that much?

On paper at least, purchasing Greenland does make sense. The ice sheet covering the country is melting and this presents huge opportunities for mining precious resources such as gold and rare-earth metals such as neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium and terbium.

These materials are all crucial in the manufacture of modern electronics and China has been at the forefront of mining them across the globe.

The US has until now been fairly relaxed about this but Trump’s trade war with China means they may no longer be a reliable supplier of such materials.

In short, purchasing Greenland would make the US less reliant on China.

Greenland’s position near the Arctic also means it is a strategic point from which to explore and exploit more of the polar region as ice sheets continue to melt due to global warming.

But doubts about what’s really going on have been raised, including by Maggie Haberman of The New York Times, who asked in a tweet on Wednesday morning: “Unanswered question: What’s the real reason Trump didn’t want to go to Denmark that he’s blaming on the Greenland thing?”